AUBURN — They don’t finish each others’ sentences. They don’t look alike, nor dress alike.

But twin sisters MaryKate and Jaclyn Masters certainly run alike, and this spring will be finishing a lot of each others’ races as they help lead Edward Little’s girls track and field squad toward an elusive Class A state championship.

“Awesome to have them both this year,” Edward Little girls’ coach Rebecca Hefty said.

“I’ve been excited about this since the end of last season,” MaryKate said. “We have a lot of talent, from the freshmen up. Our team is strong throughout.”

Stronger, still, with the Jaclyn’s return to the fold. She missed all of the 2011 outdoor season with a broken leg suffered during preseason training for the pole vault, in which she holds the school record from her sophomore season.

“That was the longest season of my life,” Jaclyn said. “I was still part of every team thing, but I had to do workouts assigned to me by a physical therapist, and I was trapped in the weight room doing those workouts every day. You want to be part of the team and get better, but I just couldn’t. I got cleared five days before the state meet. Bad timing.”

As a sophomore, Jaclyn ran in the 4×400 and 4×800 relays at the state meet, and she competed in the racewalk and pole vault, never finishing lower than fourth.

MaryKate, meanwhile, competed in the sprinting events, finishing sixth in the 4×100 relay, 11th in the 200 and 13th in the 100. In the winter, MaryKate played basketball, Jaclyn ran indoor track. Never did the two run or participate in the same events.

That will change this spring, as Jaclyn emerged as a sprint star during the winter track season.

“She’s definitely a better sprinter than a distance runner,” Hefty said. “I would say that, with Jaclyn, she defined herself as a sprinter in the indoor track season.”

Coming off of the injury last spring, Jaclyn finished strong in indoor track, posting a second-place finish at the Class A state meet in February.

“I built my muscles back up, and when I came back out to run, I was prepared,” Jaclyn said.

While Jaclyn spent last spring on the shelf nursing her injury, MaryKate showed tremendous progress. She improved six places in the 100 at the Class A state meet as a junior, two places in the 200 and her 4×100 team went from sixth to third.

“When we brought (Assistant Coach) Calvin (Hunter) on, he took the entire science of running, and he completely changed all of the bad habits,” Hefty said. “With MaryKate, she’s had to progressively start back at Stage 1 as a freshman, and every year she’s progressed into the mechanics of running from Calvin. That is what’s making the difference for her. As a freshman, she was just running to be fast. She’s since been learning the science and the mechanics of running, and that’s what’s key.”

This year, MaryKate and Jaclyn will run together, side by side, in most of their events, including, perhaps, the 4×100 relay. The possibility exists that one sister will have to hand the baton to the other.

“I’ve been in the 4×400 relay and in the 4×800, and I’ve never had to do a blind handoff,” Jaclyn said. “I told them, though, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Putting the two athletes together in similar events means similar, side-by-side workouts during practice, too. Hefty is just fine with that.

“Having them together as sprinters, it’s making both of them, they’re working with each other, but they’re working toward an individual goal,” Hefty said. “In other sports, they’re doing the same things together, but it’s more about a team goal. Here, I see a big difference. I see them working harder, I see them focusing more, and really wanting to be the best.”

Twin sisters too close for a sibling rivalry? Not a chance.

“We have the same birthday, that’s about it,” MaryKate said. “We don’t have the same personality at all. We don’t look the same. It’s like we’re siblings born in different years almost.”

“I like being fraternal twins because we’re not the same,” Jaclyn said. “We don’t look alike, we don’t act alike, we don’t get the, ‘Wait, which one are you?’ from everyone.

“I think we’re going to be each others’ biggest competitors.”

They’ll also, likely, be each others’ biggest supporters.

“As much as they’re not twins, there are so many twin similarities between them, and because they’re training together, it sticks out so much more,” Hefty said. “If they have one issue with a mechanic, they both have the same mechanical issue.

“And when you have a sibling, it’s always competitive, and they are competitive with each other,” Hefty added. “I think they’ve accepted that. I think they realize they’re going to be a power together. That’s a hard thing for them to always understand, that the two of them together are much more powerful than them separated.”